With one Traitor seemingly intent on derailing the other two, a massive row tonight shook the castle to its core
21:03, 08 Jan 2026Updated 21:06, 08 Jan 2026
Former ‘Secret Traitor’ Fiona is really putting the cat among the pigeons
The Traitors left BBC viewers in shock last night after the most explosive row in the show’s history – and it wasn’t even at the roundtable. Fans were reeling after seemingly ditzy former Secret Traitor Fiona turned on fellow Traitor Rachel Duffy and accused her of lying for her own gain, having earlier branded her a “lone wolf”.
Afterwards Fiona told the cameras: “I’ve thrown a grenade in – Rachel, you’ve got a fight on your hands.” But, determined to give as good as she got having been initially blindsided by Fiona’s outburst, Rachel countered: “I’ve done nothing wrong,” Insisting that this was all madness on Fiona’s part, she added: “I’m coming for you!”
The huge Traitor on Traitor bust-up came after former top cop Amanda was banished following an extremely tense roundtable. It ended with her losing in a ‘chest of chance’ head to head with tearful sweet-shop assistant Reece, after failing to pick the box containing the shield.
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Rachel will need to have her wits about her if she’s to fend off the attacks from fellow Traitor Fiona, who sees her as a huge threat
But knowing she was in danger of getting the boot, Amanda had earlier confided in communications boss Rachel, 42, that she was a former Detective Chief Inspector in the Met, telling her she’d had specialist training to spot those who were lying. Swearing Rachel to secrecy, she urged her to listen to what she was telling her – having been very vocal about her suspicions around certain players.
Speaking about Jade, Amanda, 57, said: “I would like everyone to know she is my number one target and you must take seriously everything I‘ve said at the roundtable.”
Once Amanda had gone – having unwittingly chosen a Traitor to be her closest ally in the castle – Rachel dutifully told the group about Amanda’s job, with the intention of highlighting her flawed theories. Speaking directly to viewers via the camera, she explained that this would encourage the Faithful to take what the former detective had said seriously – pointing them away from all three of the real Traitors and towards her targets of Jade and Sam.
Banished Amanda might have been a very senior police officer in a former life but her theories on her fellow players are all wrong
But the strategy was blown out of the water by 62-year-old local government officer Fiona, who refused to believe a word of what Rachel had said, declaring it to be a tactic to save her own skin. Saying that she had “many family members who work in the police force” Fiona insisted there was no way Amanda would not have come to her with that particular piece of information – which meant that Rachel must be lying.
Having first told Rachel to her face that she thought she’d made the whole story up to serve herself, Fiona then told several others before the groups all came together and Fiona declared: “I believe that Rachel is lying – and I believe that Rachel is a Traitor.”
As Rachel looked astonished, fellow Traitor Stephen was equally dumbstruck, saying to viewers that he was fearful of what would now happen at their late night meeting. “What just happened?” he asked. “What’s going to happen in the turret?”
In the programme he made his excuses and left the kitchen as quickly as possible and the episode ended with all three of them arriving at the turret in their cloaks, taking off their hoods and eyeing each other suspiciously.
One source said: “As rows go, that was a biggie. Unexpected behaviour, to say the least. Just goes to show you never know how people are going to behave in the castle. This will probably blow everything wide open.”
At the start of the process, when she hands over their cloaks, Claudia Winkleman tells her chosen villains: “You are a traitor now, and you must remain faithful to your fellow traitors until the very end.”
It is fairly common for Traitors to turn on each other at the roundtable, but very rare for them to show open hostility during the group’s downtime and explains why Claudia has described this series as “brutal”. Rachel and Stephen have only known Rachel was on their side for one day, after it emerged she was previously the red-cloaked Secret Traitor.
The heated exchange between the two female Traitors came after Amanda’s banishment and Maz being murdered in plain sight – meaning two former cops left the show at the same time.
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